test(1)                                                             test(1)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      test - condition evaluation command

 SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]
      test expr

      [ expr ]

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      The test command evaluates the expression expr and, if its value is
      True, returns a zero (true) exit status; otherwise, a nonzero (false)
      exit status is returned.  test also returns a nonzero exit status if
      there are no arguments.  The following primitives are used to
      construct expr:

           -r file        True if file exists and is readable.

           -w file        True if file exists and is writable.

           -x file        True if file exists and is executable.

           -f file        True if file exists and is a regular file.

           -d file        True if file exists and is a directory.

           -c file        True if file exists and is a character special
                          file.

           -b file        True if file exists and is a block special file.

           -p file        True if file exists and is a named pipe (fifo).

           -u file        True if file exists and its set-user-ID bit is
                          set.

           -g file        True if file exists and its set-group-ID bit is
                          set.

           -k file        True if file exists and its sticky bit is set.

           -s file        True if file exists and has a size greater than
                          zero.

           -h file        True if file exists and is a symbolic link.

           -t [fildes]    True if the open file whose file descriptor number
                          is fildes (1 by default) is associated with a
                          terminal device.

           -z s1          True if the length of string s1 is zero.




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 test(1)                                                             test(1)




           -n s1          True if the length of the string s1 is non-zero.

           s1 = s2        True if strings s1 and s2 are identical.

           s1 != s2       True if strings s1 and s2 are not identical.

           s1             True if s1 is not the null string.

           n1 -eq n2      True if the integers n1 and n2 are algebraically
                          equal.  Any of the comparisons -ne, -gt, -ge, -lt,
                          and -le can be used in place of -eq.

      These primaries can be combined with the following operators:

           !              Unary negation operator.

           -a             Binary AND operator.

           -o             Binary OR operator (-a has higher precedence than
                          -o).

           ( expr )       Parentheses for grouping.

      Note that all the operators and flags are separate arguments to test.
      Note also that parentheses are significant to the shell and therefore
      must be escaped.  All file test operators return success if the
      argument is a symbolic link that points to a file of the file type
      being tested.

      test is interpreted directly by the shell, and therefore does not
      exist as a separate executable program.

 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES    [Toc]    [Back]
    International Code Set Support
      Single byte and multibyte character code sets are supported.

 EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]
      Exit if there are not two or three arguments:

           if [ $# -l2 2 -o $# -gt 3 ]; then exit 1; fi

      Create a new file containing the text string default if the file does
      not already exist:

           [ ! -f thisfile ] && echo default > thisfile

      Wait for myfile to become non-readable:

           while test -r myfile
           do
               sleep 30



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 test(1)                                                             test(1)




           done
           echo '"myfile" is no longer readable'

 WARNINGS    [Toc]    [Back]
      When the [ form of this command is used, the matching ] must be the
      final argument, and both must be separate arguments from the arguments
      they enclose (white space delimiters required.

      Parentheses and other special shell metacharacters intended to be
      handled by test must be escaped or quoted when invoking test from a
      shell.

      Avoid such problems when comparing strings by inserting a non-operator
      character at the beginning of both operands:

           test "X$response" = "Xexpected string"

      This approach does not work with numeric comparisons or the unary
      operators because it would affect the operand being checked.

 AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]
      test was developed by the University of California, Berkeley and HP.

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      find(1), sh-posix(1), sh(1).

 STANDARDS CONFORMANCE    [Toc]    [Back]
      test: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, POSIX.2

      [: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, POSIX.2


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